Rodriguez hopes to start the new year same way he ended 2020

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Rudy Rodriguez won the last stakes run on the New York Racing Association circuit in 2020 when Backsideofthemoon took the Queens County Stakes on Dec. 19. Rodriguez hopes to win the first stakes of 2021 on this circuit when he runs Eagle Orb in Friday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct.

Eagle Orb, a New York-bred son of 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb, is coming off a 2 3/4-length victory in the Notebook Stakes for statebreds going six furlongs on Nov. 14. Prior to that, he finished second to Brooklyn Strong in the $150,000 Sleepy Hollow Stakes, also for New York-breds. That was Eagle Orb’s only start at the Jerome distance of one mile. That result looked a little a better when Brooklyn Strong came back to win the Grade 2 Remsen at Aqueduct on Dec. 5.

“I think he’d be fine. He trains like he wants to go long,” Rodriguez said about the distance. “The day we ran a mile and finished second he went pretty fast up front and he still was able to hold on. Brooklyn Strong is a very, very solid horse.”

The only time in five starts that Eagle Orb didn’t win or finish second was in the Bertram F. Bongard Stakes when he finished fifth of six as the 4-5 favorite. Rodriguez said that Jose Ortiz, who rode him that day, may have taken too much of a hold of the horse down the backside.

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“Even in the morning if you take too much of a hold, he just falls apart, he won’t gallop out, nothing,” Rodriguez said. “He’s the type of horse you got to let him do his own thing, let him be comfortable.”

Manny Franco, who has been aboard Eagle Orb his last two starts, will be back aboard on Friday.

Entries for the Jerome, which offers 17 qualifying points for the May 1 Kentucky Derby to its top four finishers (10-4-2-1), were to be taken on Tuesday. Others expected to run include Capo Kane, Hold the Salsa, Original, Pickin’ Time, and Swill.

Rodriguez will also look to win the second stakes of 2021 at a NYRA track when he runs Pete’s Play Call in Saturday’s $100,000 Gravesend Stakes for sprinters. Rodriguez claimed Pete’s Play Call for $62,500 on Nov. 27. Pete’s Play Call won that race by two lengths, earning a 92 Beyer Speed Figure. On Sunday, Pete’s Play Call worked four furlongs in 47.61 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.

“He had a very, very nice work today,” Rodriguez said Sunday. “He’s been training very forwardly. Hopefully, he stays that way.”

The Gravesend field is expected to include Drafted, Happy Farm, Share the Ride, and Stan the Man.

As for Backsideofthemoon, he earned a career-best 105 Beyer Speed Figure for his Queens County victory, his final race as an 8-year-old. Though Rodriguez would like to give him ample time to recover from that effort, he said he may run him back in the $100,000 Jazil Stakes on Jan. 23. That race, like the Queens County, is run at 1 1/8 miles around two turns. There isn’t another such race on this circuit until the Excelsior on April 3.